This area is a rapidly growing
one that includes new subdivisions, as well as older single-family and multi-family homes built during the 1950ís. The CDBG program has been heavily involved in the Allied-Dunnís Marsh neighborhoods, where the program has supported a variety of housing and neighborhood service
focused activities designed to improve housing conditions, reduce the residency
turnover, and build linkages between the neighborhood and outside resources. The program has helped facilitate some strategic project planning initiated by the mayors of Madison and Fitchburg, and involving the Madison and Verona School Districts. Residents and community leaders identified higher priority projects in a series of neighborhood and leadership summit meetings that encouraged the Madison School District to implement its plan to purchase an eight-unit apartment building and convert it to a school-community learning center for elementary school children. Mayoral discussions led to the closer cooperation of the two police forces in the area and a sharing of neighborhood office space. Over the last decade, the CDBG program has provided over $600,000 in equity financing to two non-profit organizations to purchase 12 apartment buildings in the area, renovate, and then manage them as affordable housing.

Activities

The major 2003 activities in this area
will include continued support of the
Allied-Dunnís Marsh Neighborhood Center and continued efforts to help improve the Allied neighborhood
by completion of a landscaping project at the Prairie Crossing complex. The program, in conjunction with the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) efforts, will also sponsor efforts to expand the range of housing choices in the Allied neighborhood through conversion of some two-bedroom units into larger ones, and the creation of some rental units into ownership opportunities. The strategies for the focus of these activities are described in the
summary City of Madison Strategic Action Initiatives in the Allied-Dunnís Marsh
Neighborhoods.